Uploaded November 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
I'll Cut Off My Long Yellow Hair / My Brother Built Me a Bancy Bower / My Father Built Me a Shady Bower / Sweet William / The Small Birds Whistle / Dukes and Earls / The Border Widow's Lament / The Famous Flower of Serving Men (Child No. 106) - Sung by Ellen Mitchell on "Have a Drop Mair" (2015) Musical Traditions MTCD315-6.
Liner Notes:
Ellen: I learned this ballad from Gordheanna McCulloch, of Glasgow, and she doesn't seem to sing it very often any more, which is a great pity. She is the only person I have ever heard singing it.
A very old ballad; among Roud's 72 instances F J Child quotes a collection from a Mrs Barnard in Ireland in 1776, but it is obviously older than that. It was printed as a broasdside all over these islands (including by both Anderson and Colquhoun of Edinburgh) and has been collected widely here and in the USA and Canada. It was printed in Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1806) and the Pocket Songster or Caledonian Warbler (1823), so it's not surprising that most British examples have come from Scotland, where the present title seems the most common; elsewhere it is more often known as The Famous Flower of Serving Men.
Song transcription:
My love built me a bonny bower,
And clad it aa with a lily flower
A brawer bower you ne'er did see
Than my true love he built for me
There cam a knight by middle o' day
He spied his sport and he went away
He brought the king at dead o' night
Oh I brak my bower and slew ma knight
He slew ma knight so dear to me
He slew ma knight and he poined his gear [pawned]
Ma servants a' for their lives did flee
And left me in extremity.
I saw his sheet makin ma main
I watched the corpse mysel alane
I watched his body baith night and day
And nae living creature came that way.
I took his body on my back
And whiles I gaed and whiles I sat
I digged his grave and laid him in
And happed him wi the sod so green.
But think na ye ma hairt was sair
When I threw the mold on his yellow hair
Think na ye ma hairt was wae
When I turned aroond awa to gae.
Nae livin man I'll loo again
Noo that ma lovely knight is slain
And wi a lock o' his yellow hair
I've chained ma hairt forever mair.
I'll Cut Off My Long Yellow Hair / My Brother Built Me a Bancy Bower / My Father Built Me a Shady Bower / Sweet William / The Small Birds Whistle / Dukes and Earls / The Border Widow's Lament / The Famous Flower of Serving Men (Child No. 106) - Sung by Ellen Mitchell on "Have a Drop Mair" (2015) Musical Traditions MTCD315-6.
Liner Notes:
Ellen: I learned this ballad from Gordheanna McCulloch, of Glasgow, and she doesn't seem to sing it very often any more, which is a great pity. She is the only person I have ever heard singing it.
A very old ballad; among Roud's 72 instances F J Child quotes a collection from a Mrs Barnard in Ireland in 1776, but it is obviously older than that. It was printed as a broasdside all over these islands (including by both Anderson and Colquhoun of Edinburgh) and has been collected widely here and in the USA and Canada. It was printed in Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1806) and the Pocket Songster or Caledonian Warbler (1823), so it's not surprising that most British examples have come from Scotland, where the present title seems the most common; elsewhere it is more often known as The Famous Flower of Serving Men.
Song transcription:
My love built me a bonny bower,
And clad it aa with a lily flower
A brawer bower you ne'er did see
Than my true love he built for me
There cam a knight by middle o' day
He spied his sport and he went away
He brought the king at dead o' night
Oh I brak my bower and slew ma knight
He slew ma knight so dear to me
He slew ma knight and he poined his gear [pawned]
Ma servants a' for their lives did flee
And left me in extremity.
I saw his sheet makin ma main
I watched the corpse mysel alane
I watched his body baith night and day
And nae living creature came that way.
I took his body on my back
And whiles I gaed and whiles I sat
I digged his grave and laid him in
And happed him wi the sod so green.
But think na ye ma hairt was sair
When I threw the mold on his yellow hair
Think na ye ma hairt was wae
When I turned aroond awa to gae.
Nae livin man I'll loo again
Noo that ma lovely knight is slain
And wi a lock o' his yellow hair
I've chained ma hairt forever mair.
